Residents Seek More Seclusion

LAKE WORTH -- Vernon Heights officials and residents today will continue their fight to turn the public streets in their northwest-area development into what would essentially be private roadways.

They are scheduled to meet with city commissioners to again plead for the right to construct a wall on the east side of the development, along North A Street, and erect barricades across four of the five streets that enter the development.

In addition, developers want to construct an unmanned guardhouse in the middle of the street that would remain open.

The barricades are necessary, they argue, to keep out people such as neighborhood teen-agers, auto-test drivers and potential thieves, which they say have continued to plague the upscale neighborhood.

``Allowing the construction of the wall around Vernon Heights will only be an asset to Lake Worth as it would allow the developers to prosper and present a positive image to the city,`` resident Nore McIlvin said in a letter to commissioners complaining about repeated burglaries and heavy ``outsider`` traffic.

Because of the way the development is laid out now, developers told commissioners last month, they cannot compete with suburban developments that offer at least the appearance of security as one of their amenities.

Acting City Manager John Sczymanski, who is also the city engineer, has remained skeptical about the idea, particularly because the barricades would limit access by city service vehicles.

Sczymanski will use a videotape shot by engineering assistant Ed Breese to illustrate the problems which garbage trucks, fire engines and police cars would face in attempting to operate on the dead-end streets.

The tape compares the turning radius of each of the vehicles on a cul-de-sac in the new Indigo Waters development near the Intracoastal Waterway with their attempts to make the same type of turn on a Vernon Heights street.

On the cul-de-sac, the fire engine and police car had no problems making a turnaround with a single movement, and the garbage truck was impeded only by a construction-related portable toilet and pile of dirt on the pavement.

In Vernon Heights, however, both the garbage truck and fire engine were forced to make five- to seven-point turns, even with the help of someone outside directing the driver. The police car could get around only by making a two-point turn.

``That was about what we expected,`` Breese said, ``but what we didn`t expect was the amount of damage the big trucks did to the paving as they were trying to make the turns.``

The videotape ends by showing large gouges torn in the surface of the pavement by the force of the tires and the weight of the vehicles, Breese said.

When developers first proposed closing off the streets earlier this year, they rejected a suggestion that they construct cul-de-sacs, rather than simply barricading the streets.

To take the additional land for the paved turnarounds, they said, would remove too much valuable property from the development.

Commissioners said they are divided about the wisdom of the proposal.

Commissioner Larry Langlais, who lives near the development, said he is all in favor of permitting both the wall and the barricades as a means of assisting the development to become a focal point for upgraded residential areas in that part of the city.

Commissioner Jim Jones, though, said the issue revolves around the use of public streets. Were the streets in Vernon Heights not owned by the city, Jones said he would have no problem with approving whatever gates and barricades the developers wanted, as long as they were consistent with city codes.

``(But) as long as they are owned by the city of Lake Worth, I wouldn`t want to see them closed,`` Jones said.

Langlais also has pushed for development of a golf course keyed on the use of an old city trashfill located between Vernon Heights and Interstate 95, and on land donated by the developers which would basically wrap around two sides of the development.

Commissioners, though, were unenthusiastic last month about a proposal from longtime real estate agent Joe Fearnley to sell the city more than 10 additional undeveloped acres in the same area for use as part of the golf course.

The session, however, could be a display of some resident dissension as well.

In recent weeks, city officials have received at least four complaints from Vernon Heights residents about the homeowners` association, presently controlled by the developers, threatening legal action against cars parked in the streets of the development.

While the letters from the developers` attorneys to the residents cite a violation of the association`s rules and threaten injunctions and potential financial penalties, city officials point out the streets belong to the city, and no one but the city can restrict their use.

Developers acknowledged in a meeting with commissioners last month that they did not control the streets; one company official said the decision to deed the streets to the city several years ago ``was probably a mistake on our part.``

Jones added that he is concerned with the actions threatened by the developers, since they conflict with the use of public property.

``Because the streets are public, you can`t set your own rules,`` he said. ``I don`t care what kind of agreement you have with the homeowners` association.``

Some city residents also have taken offense at what they call high-handedness on the part of the developers, who fail to mention Lake Worth in their advertising.

``If they want to be such a part of the city,`` said one resident, ``why don`t they want to tell anybody they are located there?``